Why are Some Brands the Most Innovative Ever

A study by brand consultancy firm Interbrand revealed key factors that contribute to a brand’s value. Along with tech observers, they suggest that three big technology brands – Amazon, Google and Apple, possess a certain quality of innovation that make them the most valuable brands in the world.

Shine’s on the Apple

Let’s begin with Apple. Their first desktop computers were a thing to own. Then came the revolutionary iPod, iPhone and iPad. Over the last decade, every new product has made its way snugly into our pockets.

The value the iPod gave to music-lovers was the promise of “music on the go”. To do that, Apple shrunk its speakers – which may have seemed common-sense to do, but it was the first brand to do it significantly. By 2008, sales of compact stereo systems and home theaters dropped to USD 1.04 billion, whereas sales for Apple products rose by nearly the same amount.

But some are skeptical that the US tech giant can keep on innovating. Its recent iPhones were met with disappointment from fans, and criticised by tech analysts as lacking in the ‘X’ factor, otherwise known as innovation. Still, the company is retaining its share of the US smartphone market, although it has been pushing back competition from Samsung and its hugely popular Galaxy smartphone.

Aside from phones, Apple is offering the full-tech armour for the wired millennial. Wireless earphones, GPS-tracking smart-watches, and a really smart Homepod music speaker that leverages on Apple’s AI assistant Siri.

Perhaps what’s driving such innovation is Apple’s commitment to developing artificial intelligence – that’s the wise old sage that informs its product developments.

Delivering value to the doorstep

In 2017, over 5 billion items were shipped using Amazon Prime – the online retailing giant’s courier service. In 2016, Amazon rolled out its drone delivery service. Previously, it offered a 1-hour delivery time for some major cities. Now, Amazon’s army of drones is making deliveries a near instant occurrence.

Amazon has “disrupted” many sectors. It even ventured into music and tv, turning Amazon MP3 into streaming music service Amazon Music Unlimited, and providing aspiring screenwriters a platform for their work. Its voice command technology was also praised for being a hugely innovative product. In 2017, over 22 million Echo units were sold. The firm continues to invest millions in startups to develop its voice-control apps for Alexa- Amazon’s intelligent virtual assistant.

Now, there’s speculation that Amazon could also be using its sprawling shipping network to break into the prescription drug market.

Since the age of AI, Google has been developing the field practically, by pairing computing resources with smart algorithms for essential services: Search, Maps, Gmail, and YouTube is now part of our daily speech because they bring information together and help you find what you want easily.

Google photos too, has been a huge hit.

Over 1 trillion images now taken each year – so Google is looking at better ways to store and present the photos.

The US firm has also reversed an age-old mentality of putting out only the polished product for consumers. It’s common for the tech giant to release its products in beta form, so that users can grab their hands on innovations faster, and in turn, Google gets feedback more quickly.

So committed is Google to new ideas and experiments, it set-up Google Ventures and Google Capital for the purpose of new “lightbulb” projects.

But with a free pass to experiment, there have been costly failures too – if you remember Google Glass.

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